Welcome to an interactive wonderland of original short stories and poems! I invite you to send me a handful of words, a theme or even just a vague notion and I will incorporate them into your own cacophony of words, mixed in together like cake batter and topped with the icing of imagination.
All stories are copyright Kendall Benton

04/22/2010

Blogstory #3 - Spaceships over Africa (for Simone) Part 2

On the last day of school before the September holidays I
couldn’t think straight I was so ants in my pants excited! Right after school I
was to go home and have an early dinner with Mum and Dad before they drove me
to the airport for my 10 pm flight to Cape Town.

The afternoon dripped by like honey left too long in the
fridge....sloooowly but surely making its way along until finally it was time to go to the airport. As Tetta and I made passed
through the frosted glass doors at customs, I turned around to see if my
parents were still waiting outside but they’d already left.

Instead of lining up with all the other people waiting to
get their passports checked and stamped, Tetta lead me over to another cubicle
where there was no-one lining up at all. There was no signage at the desk and
the man sitting behind it wore only black.

“M’am” he nodded as Tetta handed over our passports, “New
carry-on this time I see” he said smiling in my direction.

“Yes Jeffrey, this is my grandson Charlie, this will be
our first trip together” Tetta smiled and gave me a little squeeze.

Jeffrey raised his eyebrows and looked me over. “Well,
you’re the famous grandson I keep hearing about? I look forward to hearing how
you enjoy travelling with your Tetta”.

There was something in his tone that struck me as odd. As
if Jeffrey and Tetta were both in on some kind of secret that I wasn’t aware
of. I was too excited about our trip to think about it and I was eager to get
my passport stamped for the first time. Thump! went Jeffrey’s stamp and he
ushered us to go through to the gate lounge. Expectantly I opened up my
passport...but there was no stamp. Thinking I must have missed it I carefully
looked at each page in turn. Nothing.

Bemused I turned to Tetta, “Tetta there’s no stamp in my
passport, although I’m sure I saw him
stamp it....”

She looked down at me lovingly, “It’s an invisible stamp
Charlie Bear. You can only see it when using a special UV lamp”.

I gawped at her like a fish in a cartoon. Invisible
stamp? Before I could find out more an announcement came over the intercom
system.

“Special
notice – could passengers on flight DX 541 please make their way to Gate 51.
Repeating – could passengers on flight DX 541 please make their way to Gate 51
for imminent departure...crackle...oh and ah bring us some chocolate while you’re
at it....thank you”

I looked up at Tetta to see her reaction to the strange
message but her lined face was as calm and composed as usual.

“Right-o then Charlie, that’s us. We’d better get a move
on, Gretchen hates sitting about on the tarmac”. I was about to ask who
Gretchen was and why she’d be sitting on the tarmac but Tetta had swerved off
to enter a gift store located along the concourse. She purchased some expensive
looking chocolates then took my hand and led me in the direction of our gate.

Along the way I saw one of those brilliant mechanical
walkways that some of the bigger airports have. I jumped onto one going in our
direction and looked up at the sign above my head, it read:

This
Way to Gates 25 – 50

“Tetta, I think the announcer made a mistake. There is no
gate 51....” her smile widened like a Cheshire cat’s.

“You’ll see” she laughed.

After quite a long ride we stepped off the conveyor at
Gate 50, walked past the gate and down a narrow nondescript corridor. Eventually
we reached a bright red wooden door that looked like it should have been at the
front of a house rather than inside an airport. Above the door was a shiny gold
plaque that simply read “51”. “Here we go! Let’s get to our seats and start our
trip!” Tetta clapped her hands and sprung through the door.

On the other side of the irreverent red door was the ramp-way
leading to the open door of our plane. The plane itself seemed to have a strange
black metallic sheen and there was no airline logo to be seen anywhere. We were
greeted at the door by a fancily dressed man and woman with big grins on their
faces. “Oh good you’re both here!” the woman exclaimed, “Gretchen was starting
to get a little irksome but now that you’ve arrived we can get underway”.

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities" - Dr. Seuss